Officers subdue naked passenger

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A passenger stripped naked during a US Airways flight and resisted a flight attendant's efforts to cover him with a blanket before two off-duty law enforcement officers on board subdued and handcuffed him, authorities said yesterday.

Keith Wright, 50, of New York was taken into custody after he disrobed while sitting in his seat in the back of Flight 705 to Los Angeles on Tuesday evening. Wright told the FBI he suffers from a bipolar disorder and had not taken his prescribed medication yesterday.

Associated Press

Pet python strangles girl, 2, in bedroom

OXFORD, Fla. — A 12-foot pet Burmese python broke out of an aquarium and strangled a 2-year-old girl in her bedroom yesterday at a central Florida home, authorities said.

Shaunnia Hare was dead when paramedics arrived, the Sumter County Sheriff's Office said. The whereabouts of the snake weren't known last night.

Associated Press

Last pole-driven ferry stays afloat

RICHMOND, Va. — The nation's last-known hand-poled ferry has gotten a reprieve to keep it afloat for three more months.

The 140-year-old Hatton Ferry on the James River in Virginia risked extinction after state transportation authorities cut its funding last month.

But local officials in the Blue Ridge foothills where the ferry is located came to the rescue yesterday. Albemarle County's board of supervisors approved $9,340 to keep the ferry running through September. The Hatton Ferry has operated since 1870, connecting backroads in rural Virginia just a short drive from Thomas Jefferson's Monticello mountain estate.